IGN: SimCity Deluxe (iPhone) debuts in July

IGN met up with producer Philip Cohen from the SimCity Deluxe development team at E3 and posted a follow up on the status of the game. It’s target release date is in July. Personally I can’t wait to get the game, the first one was enjoyable although had its share of issues. Hopefully this game can correct those problems.

Cohen quickly admitted that SimCity’s menus and interface needed a bit of work. In Deluxe, all of the multi-level deep menus have been replaced with overlay menus that do not take you out of the city-planning action. The disappearing buildings have been fixed, too. Now, sprites will scale smoothly when you zoom in and out of SimCity Deluxe.

SimCityDeluxe adds starter cities so players can jump right into a pre-made metro. These cities are based on real-world locations, such as Paris. There are also several scenarios you can play, which add structure to the game. For example, you must build up the city infrastructure in anticipation of an incoming world games event. Disasters are also in the mix. So, now you must watch for misfortune to befall your city, such as meteor strikes.